Doug Ose: “as my colleagues know, in California we have an interesting process called the initiative process. And on this year's…”

“as my colleagues know, in California we have an interesting process called the initiative process. And on this year's ballot we have Prop 36, which is labeled Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000. I have a copy of it here. And it is interesting. I have gone through and I have flagged the various parts of it that are so troublesome. This is about 4,500 words in total. And it is interesting, it is being marketed on the basis of treatment. It provides treatment to people, that if we approve this, Californians will receive treatment. But of its 4,500 words, only 383 of them speak directly within the initiative to providing treatment for people. So can you imagine that, less than a tenth of the words in this initiative. Let me tell my colleagues that what this initiative really does is it imposes the wisdom of a criminal defense attorney, it interjects that into California statute under the guise of providing treatment for folks who need drug treatment. There is nothing in here that provides treatment to Californians. It changes criminal statute to allow people who violate our laws as it relates to drug possession and use are treated, but it does not provide a single dollar for drug treatment to people who desperately need it. And keep in mind that this is an initiative written by a criminal defense attorney. The initiative itself was funded by three people who do not even live in California.”